


What no one tells you about having genius kids

by stargatemaniac



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, Family, Teenage Drama
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:14:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26405581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stargatemaniac/pseuds/stargatemaniac
Summary: Stargate AU in which Jack meets Sam instead of Sara, and have a daughter together.Now she's grown up and all hell breaks loose.Set at the beginning of season 4 of SGA
Relationships: Samantha "Sam" Carter/Jack O'Neill
Comments: 7
Kudos: 50





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is based on a surprisingly detailed dream I had, and decided to turn it into a fic ;)  
> The following chapters are in the works too, but I am kinda busy so I will probably post weekly.  
> In the meantime I hope you enjoy this little first chapter, and feel free to leave a comment:)

Major General Jack O'Neill was woken up by a buzzing sound, although he had definitely not been asleep. Couldn't have been. He was a General, with enormous responsibilites, after all. Maybe he had closed his eyes for five minutes.

𝘔𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘺 he thought as he checked his watch. But in his defense, he had barely slept the previous night and his daily reports were particularly boring to read. Full of technobabble, and not even the Samantha Carter type of it, which at least could have cheered him up a little.

'Yeah?’ he asked his assistant as he pushed down a button, while suppressing a yawn.

'Did I disturb you, sir?’ he heard the concerned female voice. Lieutenant Williams had been there for a week already but she was still very anxious about the possibility of making any mistake, even though she was perfect for the job. She replaced his previous assistant who had been on maternity leave.

Of course one of Jack's favorite pastime as a General was freaking the living hell out of the newbies, but he made an exception this time. Williams was hard-working, enthusiastic, precise, and obviously loved the Air Force. He couldn't not respect that. She was the first who didn't deserve to be pranked by him.

'No, of course not, Lieutenant. I just..ahh.. What is it?’ Jack sighed and rubbed the sleepiness out of his eyes. Why hadn't he retired already?

'Someone is here...looking for you, but she doesn't have an ID. She said you would know her. She was 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 persistent.'

Jack frowned at first, then smiled knowingly. Of course she was. Although...she was supposed to be out of town.

'Let her in.' he said as he hastily fixed his hair, the evidence of his little nap slowly disappearing. He had to keep up the facade.

The door opened, and a young girl showed up on the doorstep, escorted by an SF guard, keeping her arms tightly behind her back. She was certainly relieved to see him, although the obvious annoyed expression was still lingering on her face. Jack remained serious, but inside he was smiling.

'Are you new around here, airman?' he asked the guard while raising an eyebrow.

'I got assigned two days ago, sir.' the guard said with a stern expression. 'About the intruder-'

'Ah, yes, our intruder!' Jack said as he stood up. 'You better watch out for her, airman. Next time she might break your nose. Honestly, I am surprised you still have all your limbs.' he continued with an amused expression. 'And regarding her ID...it's...here' Jack murmured as he pulled a badge by its cord out of his pocket. The young lady had left it on his desk when she flew to the other end of the country approximately three weeks earlier.

𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘳-𝘖'𝘕𝘦𝘪𝘭𝘭

The badge clearly stated the relationship between them.  
The eyes of the airman widened as the realisation hit him. 'She could have just told me, sir...'

'I tried, but it's kinda hard to talk while facing the floor.' Grace hissed.

𝘈𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶 Jack thought as he suppressed a smirk. Talk about pranking the newbies.

'Well, airman, next time you will know better.'

'Yes sir!'

'Dismissed.' Jack said as he waved his hand in the direction of the door.

When they were all alone, he looked at her and murmured 'C'mere, kiddo' and spread his arms to hug his daughter. She accepted the embrace, but she was obviously exhausted. He was not surprised, D. C. was a long way from Colorado Springs, although he wondered why anyone would even go there voluntarily.

'Can we sit down?' he heard her voice, muffled by their hug.

'Sure.' he said as he let go of her and turned towards his desk. 'Not that I wouldn't want to keep you here all the time, but aren't you supposed to be inside that big, dark...depressive mountain?’ he asked as they both sat down.

Grace finally looked up at him. She had the striking blue eyes of her mother. Apart from her light brown hair, her features screamed Sam all the way. That was part of the reason he always struggled to say no to her. When she pleaded, she looked too much like her mother. When she was fierce, again, she was just like Sam. He was outnumbered here, for cryin' out loud!

She took her glasses off to clean them as she visibly gathered her thoughts.  
'Yes...I am...but I need some kind of permission-' she started but Jack cut her off.

'Not the tattoo thing again... ' He winced as he remembered the time when she wanted the Stargate tattooed on her arm. She had probably already regretted the idea as well.

'-from the head of Homeworld Security...' she finished her sentence as if she hadn't even heard him.

Jack's face fell at her words. He always hated when anyone he cared for visited him for professional purposes only, let alone his family.  
He let her work part-time at the SGC a year earlier of course, so it was technically his fault, but it wasn't really that simple. She wasn't an ordinary teenager by literally any means. She was only 19 and just as brilliant as her mother. Terrifyingly so. She had dropped out of MIT after a year because as she said "there was nothing more they could teach her". Although that's not as shocking, when the fact that she had grown up learning about wormhole physics from her genius mother was taken into account. Her dream was to become the Chief Scientist in the program one day, and he really didn't want to be the one standing in her way. Sam supported her, even if she shared his worry about her safety. They had been reluctant at first, but Grace kept reminding them of the excellent physical training she got from them. Jack couldn't argue with that. He hadn't been kidding when he said she could break the nose of that undoubtedly well trained SF guard. She could have kicked anyone's ass if she wanted.

And after all, if he looked at it in a purely professional way - which he hated - the program couldn't afford to lose such a brilliant mind. And she had obviously achieved a few things over the year.

But now he knew what she was talking about, and it terrified him.

'Well...I have always been surprised you never mentioned going off-world, but I guess now is the time.' he sighed as he leaned back in his chair and ran his fingers through his hair.

Grace couldn't hold back the little smile even though she wanted to remain firm. This was supposed to be a serious conversation. Between adults. Or so she had thought.  
Because he looked so much more like himself now, with his hair all messy. The slightly childish Jack O'Neill was her dad. That Jack O'Neill was still a Colonel at heart, who had been longing to go through the gate again, instead of being chained to his desk by the bureaucracy of the Pentagon and Washington D. C.  
General O'Neill was her boss, who hated his job.

'I always knew the answer so the last thing I wanted was to piss you off...besides that would have ruined my chances later....now.' she answered honestly. 'But it's not just simply going off-world..I am requesting to be transferred to Atlantis.'

Jack's eyes widened. He didn't want to believe that he had heard that well. He reached out on his desk while still staring at her, to press a button.

'Lieutenant.' his voice was quiet.

'Sir?’

'Postpone all my unimportant meetings for the rest of the afternoon.'

'Yes, sir.'

This was going to be a long conversation. And it was only 2 PM.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack is trying to wrap his head around Grace’s idea

'Before you put me down, hear me out please.' Grace looked up at him pleadingly.

There you go, there was the face. Jack had to remain stern. That was the only way she could have felt the gravity of the thousands of concerns that had just risen in him about the whole idea, all just in the past thirty seconds!

'Gracie, you know very well that I made my decision the second you finished that sentence. I didn't even let Daniel go, for cryin' out loud! What can you say that could convince me-'

'Dad, please. I asked you something.' Grace said seemingly calmly, but Jack could hear her voice trembling.

'Alright.'

That was not fair. It was not fair at all that he reacted to her calling him dad, the way he did. But that was the first time she addressed him by that since she had arrived. She probably wouldn't even have hugged him if he hadn't initiated it. Not because she didn't love him, but because she really wanted to maintain a professional relationship. She wanted to be taken seriously and her achievements to be acknowledged but not because of her high-ranking officer parents. So much like her mother.

Which of course meant Sam seemed to be better at this whole game, pretending they had nothing to do with each other besides their working relationship. But Jack absolutely hated it. He understood of course, it was necessary by all means, but it was still torture.

The last time they spent time together had been two weeks earlier. Through video chat. She was been smiling, laughing, talking about going fishing, and something about a generator that he didn't really understand but it made Sam chime in while cooking in the background, and that was something he was very grateful for.

So all in all, no one could blame him for getting slightly emotional by the reminder that he, in fact, was still her father.

'I am not stupid, you know.' Grace sighed as she began to lower the shield she had wanted to keep between them for the duration of their conversation. But this had nothing to do with work. Some other sensible, but unbiased General sitting in that chair would have most likely approved her request. This was obviously personal.

'Oh no Gracie, you are many things but definitely not that.' Jack nodded. In fact, people had always been comparing her to Sam. He couldn't help but agree, but Gracie was still different in many ways. 

'I know this is dangerous, but hell, what isn't? I've been working in that mountain for a year now, and I actually helped to defeat the Ori! It felt amazing! But I want to do more. I want to be in the front line.'

That sentence sent shivers down Jack's spine. During seven years in the Cheyenne Mountain, it never had occurred to him that there would be a time when the SGC would cease to be Earth's first line of defence. But this was clearly that time. And he was expected to send his only child out there.

’But these are not those...religious bigots you are used to! How the hell am I supposed to let you go to a galaxy, where the Replicators, the Wraith, or even the Genii are waiting for the next moment to attack?!' He banged his fist on his desk, which made her flinch. Jack immediately regretted his outburst. Even though she had seen way more than a 19-year-old or anybody should have witnessed, Gracie has never seen his father getting violent even a bit. He had never raised his voice, and he was very careful not to be seen violent by her towards anyone in any way. Jack did everything to keep the unnecessary military attitude out of their family. Even the supervision of her physical training got taken over by Teal'c after a while, which was something they both enjoyed tremendously and maybe proved to be a bit too successful.

'I am sorry. You asked me to listen, and that's what I will do.' he muttered as he leaned back in his chair.

'Thank you.' she whispered without looking at him. She took a deep breath, while constantly fidgeting with the zipper of her maroon coloured sweatshirt. Her hands always had to do something when she was supposed to stay still. She didn't even realise she was doing it.

'I know it's dangerous, I understand your worry, I really do. But the advantages outweigh the risks. I've been constantly studying the technology of the Ancients for a year and it is absolutely incredible. But what I get here is just a tiny fraction of what I could find over there. And I think I could make a real difference in Atlantis. I could use my knowledge to really help people! And...you know that I don't mean it indefinitely. Just for at least a few months, let me try it. Please.' she finally looked up at him, her eyes piercing Jack, which he just couldn't stand, so he bowed his head instead.

Obviously, with her background, it didn't make any sense to keep her from something that was already becoming her field of expertise. At 19. He wondered if that would ever stop sounding crazy. And of course, there was the ATA gene he had passed on to her. Jack was convinced her brilliance had something to do with it. He couldn't explain why or prove it in any way, since he had it himself and he definitely couldn't pass as a genius. But there was so much more than just her intelligence. She had a strange...bond or what, with the devices. She had figured out how they worked, but unnaturally quickly. She didn't need to learn to develop the...mental component. She could instantly use and control them. But that was just one thing. She was goofy and awkward..or mostly sarcastic around her family, but her demeanour changed drastically when she was around her doohickeys. She got colder, way more rational, and so damn precise, it seemed almost unnatural. Jack didn't really understand why, but she was clearly different from anyone who carried the gene. He hated the thought but since his encounter with the Lanteans, her working attitude kept reminding him of them. Minus the arrogance. Most of the time.

He was also sure it drove her crazy that her dream seemed so close and yet so out of reach. If there was one thing he understood about this whole thing, it was that feeling.

'You would drive McKay nuts..' he muttered with a little laugh as he was contemplating the advantages.

'There you go, an upside--wait, does this mean...' Grace's eyes began to widen, but he cut her off.

'No. Not yet anyway. Look..let me think about it, okay? Give me time. This is a lot to take in at once.’ he said as he looked back at her with exhaustion in his dark brown eyes. Grace felt a pinch of guilt. She didn't want to give her father a hard time. Then again she had just asked him to let her go nearly 3 million light-years away. What had she been expecting? Damn, humans were so complicated.

'Okay. Thank you.' she nodded with a smile.

Jack scratched the back of his head. He didn't want to think about the whole thing for the next few hours. It would keep him up all night anyway. He needed to spend some actual time with his daughter. No SGC, no Atlantis, no intergalactic enemies. Just the two of them. He even looked forward to hearing about how the Canucks kicked the Wild's ass the other night. Gracie and Teal’c had conspired against him when it came to hockey, there was no doubt about that.

'Good. Now. Have you had lunch?' he raised an eyebrow, already suspecting the answer.

'Eh...I haven't eaten since...6 am, I think.' she answered quietly, trying to look innocent somehow.

'Great. You mother will kill me, so I have no other option than taking you to the mess.' Jack sighed, mentally preparing for the objection. He didn't blame her though, the cafeteria of the Pentagon could have used a change of staff.

'But..don't you have like..you know, work to do?' She asked as she pointed at the stack of reports on his desk, remembering he had postponed almost all his meetings for her. Obviously, that meant everything besides his daily phone call with the President. Which was still a few hours away. That was a rookie mistake.

'You are trying to distract me, the master of deflection with work? I thought you were some sort of a genius.' Jack smirked as he stood up from his desk.

'What can I say? The flight wore me out.' she said as she stretched her arms. '

'Ah, tell me about that. But now it's time for salty soup and dry chicken. And then call Mom--wait.' he stopped in his tracks with wide eyes. 'Does she know you are here?'

'What? Of course she does! What did you think?'

'Hey, how would I know, okay? It's not like you haven't skipped town before!’ Jack exclaimed defensively.

'That was one time, and I was five!’

'Exactly! If you could manage to escape from kindergarten just because the substitute teacher was annoying, what would stop you now?’

'I hated that teacher, but I love Mom. Geez, why does that even need saying?’ she rolled her eyes as she opened the door.

Fair enough.

'Does she know why you are here?’

'Well...not exactly...I just said I needed to see you. That seemed to work. She feels a little guilty sometimes.'

'What for?’

'Being in Colorado so much?’ Grace looked up at him as they entered the mess. She grimaced as the memories of all the terrible meals she had there suddenly returned.

'Oh come on, you are both needed there. I'm...okay here. Even if I hella miss the two of you.'

Jack knew he had to talk about this whole situation with Sam in the evening. Especially because...with Elizabeth gone, there were some changes in the Pegasus Galaxy his daughter had no idea about yet. But he had promised himself he would worry about that later.

For the time being, he had to stuff his daughter with inexcusably bad food.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am not particularly satisfied with this chapter, but we all have those days. Anyway, I hope you'll still like it!

Jack had no idea when was the last time he saw the sunset on his way home. In the past two weeks he kept leaving the Pentagon at ungodly hours. There was always something. Some days he was so tired after he had finished, that he didn't even go home, knowing that only an empty apartment would greet him.   
But not this time. Now he was finally driving home as the sun was going down, orange and pink shades mixing in the sky.

Jack glanced at the passenger seat, where his daughter was sleeping peacefully, her head leaning against the cold window. He smiled and shook his head when he remembered that was one of her superpowers. She could fall asleep in a minute, anywhere, no matter how uncomfortable the position was. Which was - as Sam had pointed out - probably the direct result of the fact that the only place she couldn't sleep was her own bed. At night. Like other people would do. 

He didn't live far from the Pentagon at all, the journey took 15 minutes tops. That was too close for his liking, but it was at least practical when there was an emergency in the middle of the night. This time it took a bit longer though, because they had to stop to buy some groceries, since Jack wasn't sure he had anything at home besides Froot Loops and Guinness. The fact that the prospect of that didn't bother her at all was worth more than any DNA test. 

'That's a weird combo..I'm down.' she grinned when they pulled up in the parking lot. 

'No young lady, you need human food at least once a day.' Jack insisted as he opened the door. 

They bought a bunch of weird stuff because Grace loved them. For example, she had been eating olives as if they were candy since she was eight. She was absolutely obsessed with them. And cheese. Just on it's own. Having a snack most likely meant sneaking into the kitchen to eat a half block of cheese, with olives and pickles. He had no idea where she had picked that up. 

The minute they were back on the road, she dozed off. She was wearing an additional bomber jacket over her sweatshirt, which was always weird to see on her, because to him that meant the military, and she let them know quite early on that she would never join the Air Force. Never. But of course, that didn't stop her from appreciating the style. 

He parked the car in front of the house. Every time he looked at it or the street, he got reminded of Sam insisting on him choosing an apartment in Georgetown. At the beginning he was sceptical about that option. Not that they couldn't have afford it, but he thought it would be still a little pricey for a temporary home. Because it was temporary. He didn't intend to stay in this godawful city any longer than necessary. But he knew the only reason she wanted that neighbourhood was because she knew he would hate it a little less than the other parts of the city. Of course she was right, as always. It definitely made life more bearable. The street was always nice and quiet. And now it reminded him of her, which made it the best place on the East Coast.

'Gracie, hey, we are home.' Jack whispered while gently nudging her shoulder before getting out of the car. 

'Yeah, sure..' she answered quietly, her eyes still closed. She stretched her arms as much as it was possible inside the car, then turned to the back seat to get her backpack, but Jack's arm stopped her from behind. 

'I've got it already.' Jack assured her, standing at the open door of the passenger side with Grace's black backpack in his left hand. 

'Thanks.' she yawned and finally climbed out of the car, headed to the back of the car to open the trunk and get the groceries. 

'I can manage that, you just go inside and lie down, okay?' Jack said softly and gave her a kiss on the head. 

'You sure?’ Grace asked sleepily. 

'Hey! I am not that old yet, okay?’ Jack exclaimed, feigning offense, which made her chuckle in a way he hadn't heard her in years. 

By the time Jack managed to get everything inside, Grace had already been sleeping on the couch, she couldn't even make it to her bedroom.   
The apartment was nice enough, thanks to Sam who always brought something when she was visiting to make the place a bit friendlier, and less like a huge isolation room.   
But the only thing that really mattered to him was his pictures on the shelves and the coffee tables around the couch. There were a few of SG-1, and several others with Sam and Grace. When they brought her back from the hospital, an entire series of Sam getting promoted, their wedding pictures. But his absolute favourite was the one from 13 years ago...Sam hugging a 6 year old Gracie sitting in her lap. She was wearing his Minnesota Wild jersey while grinning like crazy. That was a few years prior of actually getting into hockey and deciding that no team could compare to the Canucks. He definitely hadn't seen it coming. Of course, that turn of events made him cherish that memory even more. 

Jack checked his phone as he plopped into one of the armchairs. He had tried to call Sam earlier to tell her that Grace was fine, but she didn't pick up. 10 minutes later he got a text from her.   
Sorry, chaos, I'll call you back in the evening.   
Which was fine, normally they didn't talk until around 7:30 pm.   
That time was actually getting closer and closer, so he decided to change into something more comfortable.   
When he returned from his bedroom with his laptop, now wearing sweatpants and his good ol' Air Force T-shirt, Grace was already sitting up. 

'What's the time?' she muttered sleepily. 

'It's almost 7:30. Which means now you're gonna be staying up all night again, right?' Jack sighed. 

'No, I don't think so, I'm really tired. It's time for bed.' she said as she stood up and hugged her father who seemed pretty startled. 'G'night.'

'Yeah, sure, good night.'

_Well, that was weird._

She had never gone to bed voluntarily before. They always had to bribe her with something. But in the end Jack just shrugged. She looked fairly tired. Maybe this time it was enough. Finally.   
He sat on the couch, turning his laptop on, even though he had no idea how Sam would actually call him. She didn't exactly specify that in the text. He decided that if she called on the phone he would tell her to switch to video chat. He really missed seeing her. 

In that moment his phone started ringing.   
It was Sam.   
He picked it up immediately. 

'Hey.'

'Hey, sorry for not answering earlier.'

'Sam, it's fine, I'm sure you were buried in work.'

'Well, I am not sure if that covers it. '

'Is there another option for you?’

'I'm in D. C.'

Jack's eyes widened. The President had an annoying habit of ordering officers to Washington ASAP, for various reasons. He wondered what it was this time. 

'You are?’

'Yeah, I'm here to see some top dog General. You might know him. He can be a bit cranky. Or an actual pain in the ass. Depends on who you ask.'

Jack needed a few seconds to process that, but before he could say a word, Sam continued. 

'Open the door, Jack.' It wasn't more than a whisper and it sent shivers down his spine. 

* * *

He glanced at the entrance, and a grin appeared on his face. He walked over and slowly opened the door.   
There stood his gorgeous wife, obviously exhausted but nonetheless excited, giving him that mischievous smile he loved so much. Her long hair was in a messy ponytail, wearing an oversized hoodie that she definitely had stolen from him, with a pair of old jeans, but he would have sworn on his entire military career that she never looked sexier. Although..he had been saying that for 20 years now. 

Sam dropped her sport bag, clearly aiming for the floor, but he caught it before landing and tossed it into the apartment. 

  
'Jack. Where's my ki-' Sam began but she didn't get to finish the sentence, because he pulled her in as well, shut the door and pushed her against it in a heated kiss. Sam melted in his arms immediately. That was something that never changed, even after spending 20 years together.   
When they finally broke apart, Jack pulled her in a tight hug, burying his nose in her neck to feel the familiar scent of her coconut shampoo, and something he could never really define. It was just Sam's natural scent, that was incredibly intoxicating.   
She really was there. 

'I missed you.'

'Yeah, I missed you too. But now I am here, and you are here, and...Gracie is here too.' she smiled as she glanced at her jacket on the coat hanger. 

'Yeah, I was calling you earlier to let you know she was okay.' Jack muttered as he pulled away from the embrace and waved in the direction of his daughter's room. Then suddenly it clicked in. Why she had gone to "sleep".

'Wait.' he looked at Sam suspiciously, while she tried to conceal her smile. 'Did she know you were coming? And how can you be here?’

’Yes, she did. We are on leave since...yesterday. Cam came down with the flu, so all our missions got delayed.'

'For?’ Jack prompted, trying to not get his hopes up. 

'A week.' Sam grinned. 

'A week?!' he couldn't believe his ears. He had his two favourite girls with him for an entire week. 'Why didn't you come together?’ 

'I still had some things to do, but Gracie said she needed to discuss something with you.'

'Ah. About that.' Jack wasn't sure how she would react to hearing about Grace's plan...from him.

'Can't we talk about that in the morning?’ Sam pleaded as she pulled him towards the bedroom. Jack was conflicted. He didn't want to keep secrets from her, but she was obviously exhausted, and this would keep all of them up for hours. Also, this was something Grace had to tell her. Definitely not him. 

Sam let go of his hand and disappeared in the barely lit hallway, probably to say goodnight to their daughter first. Jack let out a deep breath and picked up Sam's bag to take it to the bedroom. 

He was brushing his teeth when she finally entered the room. She swiftly took off the hoodie, under which apparently was nothing. Of course Jack was still in the bathroom, knowing nothing about the partial nakedness. Sam was sure he would have appreciated it.   
When he walked back to her, she was already under the covers, wearing only one of his T-shirts as pajamas. 

'Not that I don't love the sight of you wearing my stuff...but what happened to your clothes? He grinned as he climbed next to her. 

'I have kept some of your stuff, because it has your scent. I tend to miss you a lot, you know.' Sam smiled coyly. 

'Hey, that's not fair! I miss you like hell but I can't keep one of your shirts when you leave.' he joked, which made Sam chuckle and pushed him away a bit, but then turned back to him almost immediately. 

'I might leave a few panties in your top drawer at the end of the week.' she said, staring into his eyes that were getting darker quite rapidly.   
That caught Jack off guard, but he tried to restrain himself. 

'That could be an..acceptable offer.' he muttered. 

Sam couldn't help but be proud of her achievement. Which was making the serious and fairly respectable Major General Jack O'Neill come undone with just one sentence. That was something only she could do in the entire Universe. Probably in all the others too. 

'Anyway...I'm here now.' Jack whispered while giving her small kisses

'I know.'

'So we don't need this shirt.' 

'We don't, do we?’ she smiled, and pulled him in for a deep kiss. 


	4. Chapter 4

Sam stirred in the bed, slowly awakened by the smell of coffee. That was promising. Then she realised her face was still very much against her husband's chest, his arms hugging her protectively. She opened her eyes, receiving the final confirmation of his presence, that was his bare skin in front of her.

_So no coffee in bed._

But obviously, waking up next to him was a thousand times better than all the coffee in the world. Or anything, for that matter. She carefully sat up and looked at the nightstand alarm clock while putting on her shirt, which - as it had already been established - was actually Jack's.

_6:07 AM._

_Coffee._

_Jack...sleeping._

Great.

Though not surprising.

She had anticipated it actually. She even agreed with Jack last night to keep the volume down, because the chance of Grace getting more than one hour sleep was close to null.

She had to do something about this.

Her train of thought was interrupted by Jack slightly turning his head next to her. When she glanced down, he was looking back at her sleepily.

'Why the hell are you up at...' he asked while sitting up to look at the clock. '...6 am?’ his voice was a bit husky from the sleeping, like always, and it was just one of the many little things Sam loved about him in the morning.

She smiled at him gently as she reached out to brush back his messy hair a little with her fingers. 'I just woke up a few minutes ago...the coffee..' she explained as she withdrew her hand to point vaguely in the direction of the door.

'Oh.' Jack nodded knowingly.

'I want to talk to her about this. We all know this is not healthy, but she keeps brushing the topic off.'

'To be fair, we aren't exactly the ones to talk when it comes to healthy sleep habits.'

'But she's barely 19, she is still so young, Jack.' Sam looked at him worriedly.

'Yeah, you are right.' he looked down uncomfortably. 

'And I don't want to be hypocritical. I know exactly what it feels like. Thinking no one understands what I am doing and why I am doing it. Pulling all-nighters so frequently because at that time studying was the only thing I could turn to...' Sam whispered.

'But she has us.' Jack finished her thought as he reached out to caress her hand.

'Exactly...God, she has grown up so fast!'

'In her case this cliché feels especially true.' Sam couldn't do anything besides nodding silently as she stared at her hand holding onto his.

'We're gonna talk to her at breakfast, okay? But for now...can we just stay here for like...10 more minutes?' Jack looked at her pleadingly and Sam couldn't help but grin at that.

'Missed the cuddling?’ she tilted her head.

'Like hell!’ Jack said as he pulled his wife in for a kiss.

'No giggling, Colonel!' he murmured between the kisses because she just couldn't keep a straight face.

'Sorry, sir.' she grinned.

* * *

Jack entered the room hesitantly, finding his daughter lying on the carpet with a cup of coffee, staring at the screen of her laptop. She was wearing her headphones, blasting David Bowie's _It Ain't Easy_ in the otherwise silent room. The floor was covered by several sheets of paper, with equations on them he couldn't even begin to comprehend.

'Hey!' Jack raised his voice as he walked up to her to nudge her feet with his own, knowing she wouldn't have reacted otherwise.

The sudden intrusion made Grace flinch and she took the earphones off immediately, but didn't turn around. She just paused the song.

'Breakfast is almost ready.'

'Okay, I'll be there in a minute.' she said quietly, her voice was full of gloom. Jack didn't have the heart to leave her like that.

'I thought you were taking time off.'

'Me too, but my brain doesn't seem to agree. Besides...this isn't really work.' Grace muttered under her breath, alternating between glancing at the screen and scribbling numbers on a new sheet.

'Yeah, and I don't have 3 seasons of _The Simpsons_ on the DVR, waiting to be binge-watched.' Jack mumbled as he sat down on the hardwood floor, leaning against the wall.

Grace finally looked back at him because that sounded awfully uncharacteristic of him. 'You know, being a General and all that jazz...takes up a lot of my cartoon-watching time. So what's with this..."not work"? he said awkwardly, as he couldn't think of anything better all of a sudden.

'Well...I mean, not work..as in..I doubt it has strategic importance.' Grace said as she sat up and slid next to him. 'They found this program with several others in a database, in one of the Atlantis labs. According to the translation they were used to teach mathematics to children.'

'This...is for kids?’ Jack pointed at the sheets with widened eyes. Talk about feeling dumb.

'Oh yes.' Grace sighed as she looked at her failed attempts of figuring out how the equations made sense.

Jack's eyes wandered to the bed that was obviously untouched and then back to her. She was wearing a loose T-shirt with a red flannel on top and leggings. She had changed her clothes for sure, but that was only for her comfort, he knew that well. She didn't fail to notice the expression on his face.

'Gracie...'

'Okay, yes, I barely slept....I don't need the lecture.' she quickly cut him off, knowing well what he was about to say. 'But all of my yesterday was dedicated to taking time off from this. I was hooked the moment I realised what this was but I took a break yesterday so please, just try to appreciate that a little bit, okay? I want to make sense of it, because right now, it doesn't add up and I don't know why. I feel really...stupid.' Grace sighed as she looked up at him.

'You?' Jack laughed in disbelief. 'Then how should I feel?'

Grace let her head drop on his shoulder, continuing to stare at the cryptic equations. 'Come on, drop the act. You are not fooling me. Or Mom, for that matter.' she murmured.

'Oh right, what was I thinking.' Jack said with a small smirk. 'Speaking of of which: why haven't you asked Mom to help?' he asked but already regretted the question leaving his mouth.

'No! I am not that desperate yet. But...she has already seen it and said...barely anything actually. Just that I will figure it out. And then grinned. But I know I'm close...I'm just missing something.'

They sat in silence for a few minutes, staring at the numbers.

'What if their math is wrong?' Jack murmured, trying to help her in his own way. 'They were only humans after all.'

'Superintelligent humans. Don't forget, these are the guys who built a time machine after running out of options.' Grace corrected him.

'Fair enough.' Jack nodded slowly.

'Besides, I could spot a mistake in the calculation. This is too systematic....'

And then it dawned on her.

'Wait a minute! Dad, you are a genius!' Grace turned to him and grabbed his shoulders.

'Well...I have my moments' Jack smiled proudly.

'Thank you!’ she hugged him and ran out of the room with the laptop in her hand. 'Mom!' her voice echoed through the apartment.

* * *

When he got back to the kitchen, Grace had already been sitting at the table rapidly scribbling on another random notepad, with Sam hovering over her, watching the numbers.

'Ah!' Jack exclaimed, as he noticed the last few pancakes almost burning up on the stove behind her, so he jumped there to save them in the last minute.

'I know, it must be really fascinating...whatever you have just figured out, but can we focus on refueling first?' he pleaded while putting the plates on the table.

His stomach growled. He really needed those pancakes.

'One second, I just wanna know if I am right...if the first section turns out to be correct...' Grace mumbled.

'And it certainly seems to be.' Sam nodded proudly.

For a few seconds, nothing but the friction between pen and paper could be heard.

'Yes, I got it!’ Grace looked up, showing off that grin she obviously got from her mother.

'So?’ Jack asked curiously. 'How did I help?'

'Well, if you didn't say what you said, god knows how long it would have taken me to figure it out. Which is absurd, considering how blatantly obvious it is now that I see it. The math was wrong. My math. Or the numeral system to be more precise. It was octal, not decimal. I had no idea what that number 8 meant before the first section. But then I realised I was looking at it from the wrong perspective. Of course none of the sections are binary or hexadecimal, that would have been two obvious. This is a code. A riddle. And now it is starting to make sense.'

'And what about the other five sections?' Sam frowned.

'Wait. You didn't know?' Grace asked, her eyes widened. 'I thought...'

'I had no idea...but I said you would figure it out, didn't I?’ Sam grinned at her, glowing with pride.

Jack was a bit confused, but he mostly understood what they were saying.

'I mean, what else would we expect from you?’ he smiled and kissed her forehead, then put the laptop and the notepad away but still in close proximity.

Grace was fidgeting with her fork, as she gathered her thoughts. She never knew what to do when she got complimented.

'Uhm..well..I figured that the final result of each section would be the clue to the next one. But that might be just wishful thinking. We will see.'

’Okay, now, how about some probably cold pancakes?’ Jack suggested while putting all the food on the table.

* * *

Grace was unnaturally silent during breakfast and Jack didn't force her to say anything. She was obviously trying to pluck up the courage to talk to Sam. She was focusing on taking symmetrical bites from her last pancake, not looking up once. But of course, Sam noticed her behavior and she didn't let it pass.

'Gracie, what's wrong?' she asked gently, trying to catch her eyes that were carefully shielded by her long and thick hair.

Jack knew Sam was trying to talk about her persistent insomnia, but also that Grace was very much aware of it and it was making it even harder to talk about what she wanted to.

Then she jerked her head up, the icy blue eyes finally meeting.

'I know I look like a mess, Mom. And I am.' Grace said after taking a deep breath.

'I didn't say that.'

'No, I am saying it. My insomnia and anxiety got worse, yes, because I've been sitting on something for a while. Something that I am...well, frankly, afraid to tell you.'

'Hey, you know that you can tell me anything, right?’ Sam tried to disguise the desperation in her voice. One of her fears of becoming a mother had been that she would make her children feel like they have to be afraid of telling her anything. Now that feeling came back to haunt her. 

'I know, but this is different.'

'How so?’ Sam tilted her head, trying to smile, to comfort her daughter.

'I want to go to Atlantis, Mom.'

'Oh.' Sam looked at her surprised, to say the least.

Oh, indeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh yeah, the same lame cliffhanger, sorry about that  
> I've been studying my ass off for the past few weeks so I was really tired when I wrote the chapter, hope you still liked it! ❤


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